How To Stop Dogs Jumping
June 13, 2009 by admin
Filed under Behavioural Issues, Training
As much as we love them, dogs do lots of things that drive us crazy. One of the things that people complain about most frequently is dogs jumping on them. Have you come home from work, tired and irritable, only to be met by a frenzied, happy dog knocking you down at the door? Or maybe you let your dog in the house and she jumps on your clean clothes with big muddy paws? Or, how about you have company over and your dog is so excited that she goes from person to person leaping on them? They are not amused. They came for dinner. They thought your dog was better trained.
How embarrassing. You love your dog and you know that she is just very happy to see you and other people. But you want her to stop jumping on everybody! Luckily, there are things you can do to teach your dog, gently, to stop the jumping.
There are several approaches to teach your dog some better manners when it comes to greeting people. They range from ignoring her to teaching her what she should do instead of jumping.
Ignore your dog
This first approach is just what it’s called: ignore your dog. It’s based on the idea that your dog jumps on you to get attention. “See me! See me! See me!” Whether you pet her or push her away, you are giving her attention. So, when your dog jumps on you, you must ignore her completely. Don’t speak to her, don’t pat her, don’t touch her. Don’t push her away. You must completely ignore her until she is calm and standing on the floor the way you want her to behave.
This approach only works if every single person in the household also ignores the dog when she jumps on them. If your five-year-old daughter giggles when your dog jumps on her, it won’t work. This approach doesn’t work for everyone because you can’t always control how other people in your house will react. But, if you and everyone else can ignore your dog completely when she jumps on you, she will eventually stop jumping because she is not getting the feedback that she wants. She is only getting feedback when she is calmly standing on the floor.
Hold Paws
This approach is good for big dogs. When your big dog jumps on you, you grab hold of their front paws. Keep them standing long after than want to get down. The idea here is that jumping stops being very fun for them. In fact, it gets boring. Obviously, this doesn’t work for small dogs or some medium-sized dogs because you would have to bend down to hold their paws.
Step on leash
Some people suggest stepping on your dog’s leash when she jumps on you (you have to prepare for this exercise by having your dog wear her leash). When your dog jumps up, just at the moment she is at her highest point, you step on the leash to bring her back down. The important thing here is that she should connect the pull-back with the leash instead of with you (which is a little sneaky). This is a version of leash correction.
Sitting
You can also teach your dog to greet people politely by sitting when they come to the door instead of jumping on them. You need a friend to help you with this exercise and your dog needs to already know the “Sit” command. Your friend will knock at the door or ring the bell. Your dog may go bonkers, as usual. When you let your friend in through the door you should tell your dog to “Sit.” She may or may not obey you, even if she normally would, because she is very excited about someone entering the house. If she obeys you, you should praise her lavishly and reward her. Tell her what a wonderful dog she is! If she doesn’t obey you and she jumps on your friend, don’t be surprised. You should ignore her and repeat the exercise. You may have to repeat several times until your dog actually sits when you ask her to do so. If she knows “Sit” she will eventually sit when your friend comes in the house. This exercise takes some practice because it’s very hard for your jumping dog to obey you under these circumstances. Keep practicing and she will learn to sit when people come in the house.
These suggestions have helped people teach their dogs to stop jumping on people. Choose one which you think will work in your situation. If one doesn’t work, try another. Your dog should soon get the idea that she gets more praise and rewards when she doesn’t jump on people. Don’t skimp on the praise and rewards!
